Updated: We've heard solid rumors that editors and managers at the New York Times are being…
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The key info: "The salaries of all employees at The New York Times Media Group (with the exception of the IHT, which is working on other cost reduction measures), The Boston Globe, Boston.com and Corporate in New York will be rolled back by 5%, starting this April, and these employees will receive 10 additional days off to use before the end of the year."
[Another internal memo that we just received reveals that the company is laying off "100 employees on the business side of the Times." That's serious].

It's been clear to everyone for quite some time—including, we're sure, the paper's management—that the NYT just cannot continue to spend and operate as it historically has. Still, those same execs stubbornly waited and denied and stayed silent as things got worse.

Today the NYT takes a crack at reporting on its own finances. But an editor accidentally titles it…
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The reason is that the New York Times regards journalism as a religious undertaking. There's nothing wrong with that per se, except for a bit of elitism. The problem is that they see their newsroom budget as the means to accomplish their holy mission, and that, therefore, cannot be touched. Before the recession hit, the company's financial mistakes included building an expensive new skyscraper, keeping its dividend too high for too long, and throwing billions down a black hole by buying back its own, now dirt-cheap stock.

Strangely, the newsroom budget has remained mostly unscathed through all this. But not any more. Like Conde Nast, the Times is starting out with 5% cuts, which are too small. Thirty percent would be a more realistic figure, if the goal is to get expenditures back in line with revenue projections.

Quelle horreur: Conde Nast is cutting the budget of all their high-class rags by 5% across the…
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So, baby steps. The bad days are starting for NYT journalists (worst part: you know you're going to have to work through your "10 additional days off"). But at least the company's finally touching the untouchable.